spent
there, I had been accustomed to regard the phenomena of life as differing
totally from what obtains throughout all other latitudes, for everything
living appeared to be of animal origin. The ocean swarmed with
_Mollusca_, and particularly entomostracous _Crustacea_, small whales,
and porpoises; the sea abounded with penguins and seals, and the air with
birds; the animal kingdom was ever present, the larger creatures preying
on the smaller, and these again on smaller still; all seemed carnivorous.
The herbivorous were not recognised, because feeding on a microscopic
herbage, of whose true nature I had formed an erroneous impression. It
is, therefore, with no little satisfaction that I now class the
_Diatomaceoe_ with plants, probably maintaining in the South Polar Ocean
that balance between the vegetable and the animal kingdoms which prevails
over the surface of our globe. Nor is the sustenance and nutrition of the
animal kingdom the only function these minute productions may perform;
they may also be the purifiers of the vitiated atmosphere, and thus
execute in the Antarctic latitudes the office of our trees and grass turf
in the temperate regions, and the broad leaves of the palm, &c., in the
tropics." ...

With respect to the distribution of the _Diatomaceoe_, Dr. Hooker
remarks:--

"There is probably no latitude between that of Spitzbergen and Victoria
Land, where some of the species of either country do not exist: Iceland,
Britain, the Mediterranean Sea, North and South America, and the South
Sea Islands, all possess Antarctic _Diatomaceoe_. The silicious coats of
species only known living in the waters of the South Polar Ocean, have,
during past ages, contributed to the formation of rocks; and thus they
outlive several successive creations of organized beings. The phonolite
stones of the Rhine, and the Tripoli stone, contain species identical
with what are now contributing to form a sedimentary deposit (and
perhaps, at some future period, a bed of rock) extending in one
continuous stratum for 400 measured miles. I allude to the shores of the
Victoria Barrier, along whose coast the soundings examined were
invariably charged with diatomaceous remains, constituting a bank which
stretches 200 miles north from the base of Victoria Barrier, while the
average depth of water above it is 300 fathoms, or 1,800 feet. Again,
some of the Antarctic species have been detected floating in the
atmosphere which overhangs th